Dodgers Boys Soccer Hopes to Relive '09 Success

The 2009 season was an extremely successful one for the Madison High School boys soccer squad (15-5-2), as the winners of the Morris County Tournament eventually reached the North 2, Group II state semifinals, losing to Cliffside Park, 2-1.

In 2010, reliving the success from a year ago is a daunting task, to say the very least. Third-year head coach Gary Adair will be forced to deal with a lot of inexperience as he see's only five varsity starters return from 2009

"We've lost a lot," Adair said after a film studying session with the team last week. "Over my three years here, we've lost a lot of the varsity players that I kept here. Guys like Jonathon Aguirre and (sweeper) Doug Willis, so I see it as maybe more of a rebuilding year."

Of the players that have graduated, the most notable would have to be the 2009-10 Gatorade New Jersey Boys Soccer Player of the Year, Aguirre.

Aguirre, who is a starting midfielder for the Duke University soccer team as a freshman, tallied 11 goals to go along with four assists, helping lead the Madison Dodgers soccer team to its first ever Morris County title.

With a player of that magnitude leaving, any team would feel the repercussions. The question is, who can step up in his place?

"One of our captains, Jorge Hoyos is a senior this year, he's played for the past two years and he can certainly do it," Adair explained. "He's got a lot of work to do to get to the level that Jon was at, but he can certainly hold his own. It's big shoes to fill, but I think he'll be okay."

While the head coach might say that he considers this season "more of a rebuilding year," he's also seen a lot from his team early in the season.

"I've seen positive signs in preseason, from players like Mike Gilbert our goalie. We've got two sets of midfielders that we've kept on from last year and then obviously Hoyos up front. It's definitely going to make us competitive, if nothing else."

But the Dodgers captains have no qualms with saying that they're ready to take a step up from their success last season.

"I think we'll be good," captain Mike Lami said. "We lost a lot of varsity starters last year, we only have five returning, but we had a strong junior varsity team and we're bringing up some really good talent. We're hoping to work well together and surpass what we did last year."

"We have some very strong guys in the midfield and our goalie who started last year is very good," Hoyos said. "While we have a lot of young guys who don't have experience, we definitely have talent. We hope that they can help carry us through. It's all about concentration and commitment, but we think that we can go far."

While this year's team lacks in experience, Adair doesn't believe that it lacks in talent, and sees a bright future for Madison.

"It's a good group," he said. "There are a lot of lads who played JV last year who maybe would have gotten a shot, if not for the amount of seniors that we had. Players like Freddie Wynn, Jackson Hurst, Pete Willis, Donnie Geraldo, younger players. We should be good and able to fit a decent squad around them."

Adair also spoke about his strategic expectation for the upcoming season. Expectations that he believes the team will have to imitate in order to have success.

"Defensively, I'm hoping this year we can get it together. But we've certainly got players who can break and who've got pace and we can put the ball in the goal as well. But I'd say I'm hoping that defense will be our strong suit this season."

Madison opens its Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference slate on Saturday at 9 a.m. at home vs. Morris Hills.